Benchmarks continue firm trade in late morning session

Indian equity markets continued their firm trade in the late morning session on account of buying in frontline blue chip counters. Investors are eyeing Union Budget which is scheduled on Saturday to get further direction to the markets, while the Railway Budget 2015-16 will be tabled in the parliament by the rail minister Suresh Prabhu on Thursday. Traders were seen piling positions in Oil & Gas, Realty and IT stocks, while selling was witnessed in Consumer Durables sector stocks.  In scrip specific development, Jubilant FoodWorks was trading in green as the company has tied up with Indian Railways for delivering pizzas to commuters in trains. The market is likely to remain volatile as traders will roll over positions in the Futures & Options (F&O) segment from the near month i.e. February 2015 series to next month i.e. March 2015 series. The near month February 2015 derivatives contracts will expire on Thursday i.e. February 26, 2015.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading mostly in green.  Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above the psychological 8,800 and 29,100 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1288:875 while 83 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 29190.63, up by 185.97 points or 0.64% after trading in a range of 29115.32 and 29269.83. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.44%, while Small cap index up by 0.54%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 1.12%, Realty up by 1.01%, IT up by 0.80%, TECK up by 0.75%, Auto up by 0.48% while, Consumer Durables down by 0.01% was the lone losing index on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HDFC up by 1.78%, Infosys up by 1.73%, ONGC up by 1.63%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.44% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.40%.

On the flip side, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 1.48%, GAIL India down by 0.88%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.48%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.46% and Bajaj Auto down by 0.32% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha, replying to a query  in the Rajya Sabha has informed that the government has raised additional revenue of Rs 20,250 crore on account of increases in the Basic Excise duty (BED) rates of petrol and diesel (branded as well as unbranded), which have been announced since November in 2014-15 Financial Year.

Notably, this is the first time the government has stated just how much it stands to gain from the excise duty hike. It has raised the excise duty on petrol and diesel four times since November, a move that prevented consumers from enjoying the full benefit of 60% fall in crude prices.

The government, in order to achieve the fiscal deficit target for this year, raised excise duty on petrol and diesel on November 12, December 2, January 2 and January 17 respectively.

With the hike, present effective BED on unbranded and branded diesel is Rs 7.96 per litre and 14% + Rs 5 per litre or Rs 10.25 per litre, whichever is lower respectively. Meanwhile, the central excise revenue (provisional) from petrol and diesel during the period from January 31, 2014, to January 31, 2015 stands at Rs 58,000 crore approximately.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8817.30, up by 55.20 points or 0.63% after trading in a range of 8798.00 and 8840.65. There were 37 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Ambuja Cement up by 2.53%, Infosys up by 2.01%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.86%, Cairn India up by 1.77% and ONGC up by 1.75%.

On the flip side, Zee Entertainment down by 0.99%, Power Grid down by 0.77%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 0.71%, GAIL India down by 0.57% and Tech Mahindra down by 0.55% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Jakarta Composite increased 12.18 points or 0.22% to 5,429.49, Straits Times increased 12.77 points or 0.37% to 3,450.38, KOSPI Index increased 13.5 points or 0.68% to 1,989.62, Taiwan Weighted increased 64.31 points or 0.67% to 9,693.68 and Hang Seng increased 83.13 points or 0.34% to 24,833.20.

On the other hand, Nikkei 225 decreased 23.55 points or 0.13% to 18,579.76, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 8.81 points or 0.48% to 1,809.87 and Shanghai Composite decreased 3.77 points or 0.12% to 3,243.14.